• Roommate referral website does not discriminate by allowing users to list their preferences for roommate characteristics. "Holding that the [Fair Housing Act] applies inside a home or apartment ... would be a serious invasion of privacy, autonomy and security."
Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com
• Student alleges a prank involving a bottle rocket and another student's anus backfired, causing him to fall off the deck of a frat house.
Helmburg v. Alpha Tau Omega
• 5th Circuit reinstates a jury verdict finding a man employed by an engineering firm was sexually harassed by a male supervisor. "The text message 'I want cock' could be taken as an explicit sexual proposition."
Cherry v. Shaw Coastal
• The ex-wife of a man who fatally shot himself with a gun he had stolen cannot sue the gun's owner for wrongful death. "We conclude that public policy dictates that [Charles] Milot's criminal conduct acts as a bar to recovery."
Ryan v. Hughes-Ortiz
• Pennsylvania woman alleges her former employer discriminated against her because she wore a fake penis to assist her in her female-to-male transition. "Plaintiff's use of the prosthetic device was concealed and in no way interfered with the ability of Plaintiff to do her job." Davis v. J&J Snack Foods
• Son of a woman charged with murdering her husband cannot use the proceeds from the victim's life insurance policy to fund his mother's criminal defense. "[A]llowing the distribution of these proceeds to a third party who has clear intentions to transfer part of these proceeds to her, undermines the principles underlying the Slayer’s Act and federal common law."
In Re: Estate of Michael Burkland
• Seattle judge says an actress cannot proceed anonymously in her suit against the IMDb.com website for publishing her age. "[W]hile Plaintiff may face public ridicule and embarrassment if she elects to go forward under her real name, the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously."
Doe v. Amazon.com
• Family of an 11-year-old girl who was crushed by a boulder of ice says forest ranger negligence caused her death. Rangers "did not warn users of the risk of harm associated with the dangerous, unstable snow and ice" at the Big Four Ice Caves in Snohomish County, Wash. Tam v. U.S.
• 3rd Circuit dismisses a breach of data security case against a payroll-processing company. "Appellants' allegations of an increased risk of identity theft as a result of the security breach are hypothetical, future injuries."
Reilly v. Ceridian Corp.
• Oregon judge denies First Amendment protections to a blogger. "Defendant cites no cases indicating that a self-proclaimed 'investigative blogger' is considered 'media' for the purposes of applying a negligence standard in a defamation claim."
Obsidian Finance v. Cox
• A transsexual who was fired from her government job while she was in the process of becoming a woman wins her sex discrimination suit. "[A] government agent violates the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination when he or she fires a transgender or transsexual employee because of his or her gender non-conformity."
Glenn v. Brumby
• New York man sues a Texas fertility clinic for wrongful insemination, alleging it failed to obtain his consent before using a sample of his sperm to impregnate his ex-girlfriend.
Pressil v. Advanced Fertility
• Nebraska judge rules that school officials may have illegally disciplined students for wearing t-shirts in honor of a slain friend suspected of gang membership. "[Q]uestions of fact remain whether Plaintiffs’ speech occurred in a context likely to provoke gang violence or other disruptions of school activities."
Kuhr v. Millard Public Sch. Dist.
 
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No Dice Again for Alleged Howard Hughes Heir |
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A former gas station operator may have come to the end of the road in his 30-year quest for a share of the Howard Hughes estate as a Utah judge threw out his fraud suit against a cousin of the reclusive billionaire.
U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins said Melvin Dummar's claims were "fully and fairly litigated" at a probate trial in 1978, when a Nevada jury found that a Hughes will naming him as a beneficiary was bogus.
Dummar, 61, tried to revive the case last year by suing Hughes cousin William Lummis, who became the sole beneficiary after Hughes was declared intestate.
"[T]he court determines that through this action, Dummar is attempting to circumvent the Nevada court's final judgment and to, either directly or indirectly, relitigate his entitlement to a portion of Hughes' estate," Jenkins said in an opinion granting Lummis' motion to dismiss.
Hughes supposedly left Dummar $152 million in the so-called holographic will a few months after Dummar found him lying face down on a central Nevada desert road in late December 1967, woke him up and then drove him 160 miles to Las Vegas.
In his new suit, Dummar alleged that Lummis and co-defendant Frank Gay, a Hughes aide, pressured witnesses to testify falsely at the Nevada trial that "Hughes never left his penthouse suite at The Desert Inn [in Las Vegas] during the time period between Christmas and New Year's Eve of 1967."
But Jenkins said that regardless of the alleged misconduct, he could not rule in favor of Dummar without determining whether the holographic will is valid. And that issue was "fully and fairly" litigated in the Nevada trial.
"Dummar testified before the jury regarding his encounter with the man who identified himself as Hughes and produced evidence and witnesses, including a handwriting expert, during the trial," Jenkins noted.
Much of Dummar's new case relied on Hughes' pilot, who came forward in 2004 with evidence that appeared to corroborate Hughes was in central Nevada visiting a brothel at the time he supposedly met Dummar. Jenkins did not mention that evidence in his ruling.
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Dummar Case Court Documents
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By Matthew Heller
1/8/07
With the $243,750 settlement of a fraud suit, the executors of Marlon Brando must be hoping they have finally put questions about the management of his estate and the authenticity of his will behind them.
Former Brando caregiver Angela Borlaza agreed to the mediated settlement last month, joining four other plaintiffs (see ), some of them longtime Brando associates, who have settled claims against the executors in Los Angeles Superior Court since the Hollywood legend died in July 2004.
Borlaza's was the most explosive case, alleging, among other things, that Brando was “incapacitated” and “incapable of signing anything” on the day he changed his will and gave control of his $22 million estate to the three executors.
The original will appointed Brando retainers JoAn Corrales and Alice Marchak to administer his estate; a codicil signed less than two weeks before his death in July 2004 removed them as executors, replacing them with former studio chief Mike Medavoy, accountant Larry Dressler, and Avra Douglas (a friend of Brando's daughter Rebecca).
Borlaza was seeking $2 million in damages from the executors and the $627,000 market value of a San Fernando Valley house which she said Brando had bought for her. She also alleged in a complaint filed in June that having been trained by Brando to recognize his signature, she “is informed and believes” that he did not sign the codicil.
But the settlement brings the case to a speedy end -- before the merits of its allegations were litigated and with a motion to dismiss pending. Dressler argued in the motion that Borlaza waited too long to file the suit after her creditor's claim against the estate in probate court was denied.
Since Brando's death, the executors have sold off many of his assets. Most controversially, they made a $2-million deal with a Tahiti-based businessman who plans to develop Brando's beloved South Pacific island, Tetiaroa, as an “eco-resort.”
The lawsuits of Corrales, Marchak, architect Bernard Judge and Cristina Ruiz (the mother of three of Brando's children) were all confidentially settled in 2006. To date, there has been no official investigation into the authenticity of Brando's final will.
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Other Borlaza Case Sources
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Jurors' Comments Fuel New Trial Bid in Bullying Case
Jurors may have opened the door to a new trial in a Maryland school bullying case by saying they returned a verdict for the defense because they were afraid of setting a bad precedent for school systems throughout the country.
Read more...
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Abuse Victim Can Sue Ex-DA Over 'Sexting' Messages
A Wisconsin judge has protected a domestic violence victim from a rogue prosecutor, finding that she can sue him for sending her text messages in which he pressured her to have sex with him.
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Four Loko Maker Says Users Knew of Health Dangers
The maker of Four Loko has previewed its defense of a slew of product liability lawsuits, arguing that the physical effects of the energy drink's mixture of alcohol and caffeine — far from being an undisclosed risk to consumers — are precisely what made it so popular.
Read more...
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Mortician Sued for Speaking Ill of the Dead
In a first-of-its-kind unprofessional conduct lawsuit, a woman has sued her former boss at a Michigan funeral home for making an indecent comment about the body of a dead man in front of her.
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'Next Friends' of Orcas Bid to Stop SeaWorld Slavery
An animal rights lawsuit against SeaWorld for enslaving five killer whales at its aquatic theme parks in San Diego and Orlando may sink even though humans are representing the orcas as their “next friends.”
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Jury Finds No Harm to Boy From Wrongful Circumcision
In a blow to supporters of male “genital integrity,” an Indiana jury has ruled that a doctor did not injure a boy by circumcising him when he was an infant even though his mother wanted him to be left intact.
Read more...
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Guest Can Sue Motel 6 Over Attack by Woman's Pimp
A guest who paid for sex with a prostitute at a Motel 6 did not assume the risk of being attacked several hours later by the prostitute's pimp, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled in an unusual premises liability lawsuit against the motel operator.
Read more...
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Marsh v. Air Tran Airways
Subject: Roaches on a plane
Document: Complaint
Classic Media v. J.G. Wentworth
Subject: "Lassie" copyright
Document: Complaint
Kardashian v. Old Navy
Subject: Publicity rights
Document: Complaint
McKee v. Laurion
Subject: Doctor defamation
Document: Opinion
Francis v. U.S.
Subject: Bear attack
Document: Decision
more
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Doe v. Discovery Day Care
Court: Miami-Dade Circuit
Subject: Child molestation
Verdict: $3,000,000
Hoback v. City of Chattanooga
Court: USDC, E. Tenn.
Subject: PTSD discrimination
Verdict: $680,000
more
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Brown v. Herbert
Date: 12/16/11
Court: USDC, Utah
Hearing: Motion to dismiss polygamy case
more
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